Godspeed
by Yarrie - Water Master
Summary: Heading up north sounds like a pretty good idea - until you get stuck in the mountains, that is. In which Izumi freezes and Kouji is about as sympathetic as an icicle. A nice icicle. AU Kouzumi, sequel to Godchild.


I wasn't expecting to make a sequel to Godchild, but here it is. Set immediately after they leave Elton. There's actually more than _hinted_ romance this time [smacks head] It's pretty long for a one-shot, but a lot happens.

Enjoy!

* * *

Godspeed

* * *

It was cold.

A faint chilly breeze she could bear with a grin. An icy shower would eventually fade into the background. Even a frosty mass of snow wasn't that hard of an obstacle. But this, this was none of the above.

This was hell frozen over. Multiple times.

Another howling wind blew to her right side and she instinctively tightened her grip on the soft woolly cloak. Before they came down the side of the mountains the wrap would make her feel overly warm, particularly at noon. Now that they traveled further North, leaving the parched sphere of the valley behind, the path felt colder and colder every day. First the dry soil turned to solid mountain rock, which barely warmed in the weak sun and instantly chilled after night fell. Then, slowly, small patches of snow took over the path until it formed a seamless blanket. The piles thickened into hills and hills into stubborn mountains on either side.

This introduced the very real possibility of frostbite. With the walls of snow all around them, it was nearly impossible to push through and find proper shelter at night. Sometimes they were lucky, and found the tracks of other travelers that broke through the icy fringe. Often, the thresholds of these makeshift gateways were nearly as high as the snow pile they were carved out of, due to the plentiful fresh snow that fell at night. But it was still easier to use the older passages than to strike out a new opening themselves.

Tonight, they were not so lucky. The sun had set an hour before, and after the snow began to fall again, her companion stopped and began searching the sides for weakened drifts. How he could tell she didn't know and didn't ask. Opening her mouth meant that she would lose extra heat to the atmosphere, and after getting a frozen tongue the first day she learnt her lesson. Instead she rubbed her hands frantically in an effort to warm them. The temptation to pull them under her makeshift shirt was enormous, but she knew that keeping the heat in her chest was more important.

It was better to lose a hand or two and still live.

Kouji stopped suddenly and she ran into him. She yelped weakly, the wall of snow buffering her half fall. She glared at him and he gave her a sharp flick to the forehead.

_So arrogant!_ Sometimes she wondered why she didn't fight back. It wasn't like there were endless forks in the road; as long as she stayed alive she could easily find her own way out of the mountains. So why didn't she?

The wet snow soaked into her clothing and she hissed. She shouldn't have leaned on the ice this long, even to recover her strength. Izumi braced herself quickly and tried to slide off the icy patch without losing her balance. Long arms suddenly came down to grasp her shoulder and she nearly threw them both into the snow with a startled jump backwards.

He cursed. His voice was low and harsh in the chilly air. Somehow she spotted the sharpness of his glare through the white flurries. She sent one back, fuming. Even after traveling with the man for several weeks, he was still utterly unpredictable. It kept Izumi constantly on edge, not knowing what he was going to do next. Sometimes he would be playful, almost teasing while she tried to bat him away. Otherwise he would be curt, choosing to stalk off angrily rather than try to help. This time, he just reached forward again and pulled her back against him.

Black hair fell out of his hood as he pulled off one of his gloves with his teeth. He reached his now bare hand inside her cloak and her fingers eagerly fisted around it. Warm. Why was he still so warm?

Izumi wondered every so often why he still put up with her. She was obviously the less experienced traveler and he had to regularly fish her out of some potential danger that she didn't even realize was there. Like when she talked too much. Or took some clothing off to dry. Or rested too long on snow.

He leaned his forehead against hers suddenly. She was well aware that her body's internal temperature was already much lower than it should be, and standing around in the snow didn't help much. Kouji was frowning, not one of his angry frowns, but a kind of concerned frown.

When did she learn to interpret his _frowns_?

He started to speak and confirmed her suspicions. "You're going to freeze to death."

How enlightening.

"So we're standing here why?" she muttered back.

"Shut up." His forehead was still against hers. The warmth of his breath fluttered against her nose. Her eyelids felt heavy with fatigue and numbness. She didn't know how long they stood there because it felt like she had dozed off, upright and leaning against him. She opened her blurry eyes again when Kouji gently shook her. The grip of her hands around his had loosened when they regained some body heat, and when he gently stroked his thumb against her fingers she let go.

He walked off. She followed after she shook off the snow from her hood and shoulders. Kouji was walking with his hand against the wall again, feeling around. When he stopped this time, she managed a graceful sidestep to avoid hitting his back. The sudden turn had her sliding a little forward into a lounge. It left Izumi disoriented for a while, but her front foot caught the edge of an ice chunk and steadied her legs. Well, improvement was improvement. She would take what she could get.

He wasn't looking at the wall of snow. He was looking beyond it, at something in the distance. She stepped around him to see.

"A cave," she recognized. He knelt down and gently tapped the pile in front of them with his fingers. After a pause, he knocked against it hard with the back of his hand. It didn't even leave a dent.

"Deep," he said quietly.

That could mean many things, but the cave lying there so obtrusively complicated things. The mountain path was the most heavily traveled of all three trails through the southern mountains. At some point, other travelers must have seen the shelter and tried to get to it. But the lack of a visible trail indicated that either heavy snowfall had covered their work or they gave up because it was too difficult to dig through the wall.

Or, more optimistically, the snow could be particularly light today and let the two of them to see what no others had seen before them.

Izumi doubted that the thicket of white snow falling right now could be counted as light.

Whatever it was, they were running out of time.

He suddenly turned her around again and put his forehead to hers. His skin wasn't necessarily warm, but it certainly felt that way against hers. Izumi could already feel a headache forming from the chill around her face. The frown on his face deepened, and he knocked the first layer of snow off of the wall in front of them. "No choice."

After clearing off the softer piles on the outside, he pulled out a short dagger and shoved the snow aside. The swell of white was nearly as tall as he was, but he worked mostly on the upper part of the snow. The lower was packed and stable enough to walk on. But without clearing a path on the top, the slope of the mountain sometimes made all upward movement impossible in the thick marshy frost.

Izumi quietly wished that she could control her ability better. A sizeable gust to drive the snow out of the way wasn't a problem, but her wind was inefficient and she would tire quickly from using it more than once in quick succession. It was best to keep her magic in reserve, no matter how useless she felt sometimes. Moments like this she felt better about staying with Kouji, no matter how exasperating he could be. She wouldn't have lasted this long without him.

Kouji suddenly leapt up the smaller pile of ice that remained, and stomped hard to form a stable platform against the slant ground. His eyes traced the shortest path to the cavern, and he quickly moved on to the next patch of ground. It was slow work and slower progress under the all too fast flight of the moon across the dark sky.

She followed a few feet behind him. The path he made was narrow, to be more efficient. Two people working at once would slow him down. She didn't even have gloves, so the only way to help him was to stay out of his way.

Izumi wondered what he thought of their odd partnership.

She was still wondering hours later, when they finally reached the rocky bend of the cave and he shoved her inside.

From the shuddering tree just outside the rocky opening, they peeled off layers of bark and cracked branches. There was enough to start a fire, heat a small pot of snow for water, and warm the dry strips of meat in their packs. Izumi concentrated on keeping the air in the cavern absolutely still to keep the flames from going out. This much she could do, even when Kouji flicked her on the forehead and warned her not to use too much energy on it.

It didn't even make Izumi mad anymore. Walking for miles every day, she just didn't have the energy to do much more than stagger to the fireside and sleep. And eat. And fire off a few insults of her own, perhaps. And whack him when he was particularly annoying… Well, the point was, she only got upset out of habit now.

The fire was too small to warm even one person, much less two people. They huddled together instead, sharing the two cloaks. She tried not to shiver too much. Her fingers finally regained their dexterity after a few minutes nestled in warmth, so she peeled off the layers of leather that were tied up in the rough shape of boots around her feet. Kouji watched her.

"You need proper boots."

"_Yes_, I need proper boots. What are you going to discover next, that snow is cold?" The snappy remark found its way out even through her chattering teeth.

He glared half-heartedly at her. "No, that your _feet_ are cold."

"Jerk."

"Takes one to know one."

"That's why you're always alone."

"So why are you still here?"

"I'm just a patient woman." Not that it helped.

"I'm not a patient man."

The witty comment on the tip of her tongue died suddenly. For some reason, Izumi felt like they were having two completely different conversations. Kouji was looking at her with eyes that were darker than normal under the poor lighting, black pupils expanding and leaving only a thin ring of hazy blue. Other than the faint bruises under his eyes, he showed no signs of fatigue. Izumi suddenly felt like he was a world away even though she was almost spooned into his side.

She absently rubbed her legs and realized that Kouji had completely untied her 'boots' while they were talking and now her feet were bare. The man moved far too stealthily for her comfort, and whenever she noticed something that he had done long after he had already done it she always felt furious with herself. Why did her otherwise overactive reflexes fail her whenever she was this close to him? "I could have done that myself, you know," she muttered.

For a moment, his brow creased in confusion. He realized what she was talking about when she pulled some of the leather straps out of the warmth of her cloak and dangled them in front of his face. "But you didn't."

Was that a grin? Izumi forced down the urge to punch him. He would probably catch her fist anyway. God, she hated feeling weak.

"I was _going_ to."

"Your point?"

She blinked, not sure how to answer. Then she sighed, set the rough pieces aside and rubbed her left foot absently. It was numb, but she could feel the chilly skin against her fingers. Izumi had every intention of ending the conversation (if it actually qualified as a conversation) and going to bed, but apparently Kouji didn't share her opinion.

"Why did you stop?" he murmured suddenly, leaning over her ear.

Now it was her turn to feel confused. Sometimes she really thought that their discussions only make sense half the time, the other half she was left guessing. And when she wasn't left guessing, _he_ was. Like many other things about their relationship, talking usually left them both more puzzled than they were before.

"Stop what?"

"Stop doing what you were doing. You do that a lot."

Oh. The boot thing.

"Dunno," she mumbled sleepily.

"Tired?" It barely qualified as a question. Just barely. Kouji had a habit of stating the obvious. She eventually learned over the past few weeks that he only did it because he didn't know what else to say. At the very least, she appreciated the effort, if not the timing.

"Aren't you?" Izumi felt him shrug, even though she was lying on her side and couldn't see him. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?" he asked, voice muffled by the soft cloth encasing them.

"Not get tired."

"Oh." He paused. "Practice."

Izumi couldn't help it. She burst out into weak, shaky laughter. "That can't be all."

"What else would it be?"

"Hmmm…I don't know."

Silence. She could feel Kouji shifting and turning around, only to stare at her with incredulity. Even without looking at him, she could feel the intensity of his eyes burning into her back.

"What kind of answer did you expect then?"

"Shut up," she muttered.

"Idiot," he returned. "I've been at this for years. Of course I'm not going to be as tired as you are. You'll do more when you learn how."

Izumi growled quietly to herself. The other problem with talking to Kouji was that he could answer questions before she even had the chance to ask them. She tried to be subtle and roundabout, just for courtesy's sake, but he always plowed through her social niceties. If she really thought about it, Kouji's directness made sense. Nothing described him more than efficiency. He probably didn't see anything wrong with how he treated her.

Actually, _was_ there anything wrong with how he treated her? Izumi had realized almost immediately after their first meeting that Kouji's logic wasn't unreasonable. Though he wasn't exactly kind, he was never cruel. Mostly, he did just the minimum that was necessary to avoid criticism. He would not offer beggars a meal, but neither did he seek to torment them. His criticism was harsh when a problem could have been avoided, but he was silent when it wasn't the doer's fault. Killing anything for sport sickened him, but he was merciless when it was necessary. In fact, Izumi's anger was actually closer to frustration.

Frustration that even though he wasn't an ideal man, she couldn't identify how he was _not_ ideal.

She just kept chasing and chasing it around in circles…

Around…

And…

Around…

…

It was cold. Groaning, she tugged the improvised blankets tighter only to realize that the scent of smoke had penetrated the fabric, and she yanked it off to cough. Shivering against the blast of chilly air that slammed against her bare skin, Izumi turned to her right and started looking for her companion.

A hazy orb of light floated just above the horizon and the frosty air was just barely warmer than it had been last night.

By now, they had settled into a consistent morning routine that began at dawn. Kouji, as Izumi found out on the first day of the journey, was very much an early riser. He seemed to have some kind of internal clock aligned perfectly with the sun, so that even on cloudy days he still woke up exactly at daybreak.

He was always up first, so he started the breakfast fire.

Because they combined their wintry cloaks to make a double-layered blanket, as soon as he pulled his away the cold would seep in and eventually wake Izumi up as well. The further North they traveled, the less sleep for the exhausted girl, especially since dawn seemed to come earlier and sunset later. It was as though she only slept for a moment before the sun ushered her back up.

She found him sitting at the fire and boiling a pot of water. The steam was warm and filled the little cave with much-needed moisture. The air felt hot and thick closer to the hearth, so she moved next to Kouji and held her hands over the humid air.

There was a ceramic mug in Kouji's other hand, which made her giggle slightly. Even out in the middle of nowhere, he somehow found time to boil and drink a cup of jasmine tea every single morning. She could see why he would indulge when all around them was an eternal winter landscape, but it seemed so at odds with his abrasive personality.

By now she had accepted it as a habit of his that he couldn't break. But that didn't stop her from teasing him about it every morning.

Her hands began to burn from the heat, so she pulled them back from the thick vapor. Much warmer than before, she pulled up her knees and set about tying the loose sheets of leather around her feet again. A thin hemp rope was wrapped securely around each ankle many times in a spiral up her calf, while another did the same around her foot. She lost her only shoes when her house had been destroyed, so Kouji had lingered around the town the next day to buy supplies. The villagers had been all too happy to receive water as payment for their goods, but good boots were in short supply because no one really needed them in the valley and no traders came there anymore. Unfortunately, the temporary solution that Izumi now used wasn't good enough for the snowy slopes. Between her feet and the ruthless icy road was only a thin layer of animal skin. The white skin on her soles didn't completely recover from the abuse even after a full night's rest.

The water canteen had been drained ever since they left the village. Kouji told her that it was to keep the water from freezing inside the container in the snowy weather. Now it was a storage place for, of all things, jasmine tealeaves. Just thinking of it made her want to laugh again, but she held it in so that she could dress as quickly as possible.

Kouji was watching her somewhat and noticed when she stopped tying the leather up. She could feel him lean over her shoulder curiously. When she glanced at him, she saw a frown make its way back onto his otherwise emotionless face.

It wasn't distant concern anymore. Instead, the look on his face mirrored anxiety and dread. Why?

As if to answer her unspoken question, Kouji gently took hold of her heel. While his fingers were pale and lean, they looked healthy and pink compared to the white, clammy skin on her feet. His touch was gentle and secure, but she couldn't feel it at all. For a moment she felt panic, then he rubbed his nail against her insole and she giggled softly at the sensation. Relief that the nerves hadn't been completely damaged by the cold overrode irritation with him for disturbing her routine.

He let go of her foot and stood up again. She snuck a look at the mug in his hand and frowned.

The tinted liquid was untouched and no longer steaming hot.

"You didn't drink any?"

He shook his head. That was it. No explanations, no excuses. Izumi seriously considered throttling him. More than anything, though, it was out of worry. Kouji didn't go without his tea. He just…didn't. As odd as his habit was, it was even stranger to see him willingly refusing the drink, especially after already making it.

"You okay?" Disregarding her still bare foot for the moment, she stood up and followed him to the edge of the cave. He dumped the tea outside, and she grabbed his arm on the way back. "Kouji."

He didn't look at her. "I'm fine."

"So am I," she retorted. He wasn't facing her, but the frown on his face deepened. She could see the beginnings of anger, irritation, and…something else.

Huffily, she blew at one stubborn blonde strand of hair. The clump of sandy color stayed put, and she dragged her hand through the mass irritably. The thick, unruly bunch was in a ponytail for her convenience, but the lack of care was beginning to take its toll. Water was reserved for drinking, and perhaps the occasional wash, but on a whole, there wasn't anything she could do about her hair. Except chop it off.

That wasn't a bad idea, actually…

Izumi was dragged out of her thoughts when Kouji's hand suddenly lifted her left foot up. She shrieked, nearly falling over. Her other leg collapsed under the sudden weight of her entire body, and she ended up on her knees. After a brief delay, her instincts took over to try to minimize injuries. Disregarding propriety completely, she threw her arms around the startled young man, attempting to keep the rest of her from hitting the ground.

They swayed slightly, but didn't topple over. When her heart stopped beating wildly under her skin, she let go and smacked him. "What are you doing?!"

He glared up at her, but to her surprising satisfaction, he didn't look completely unruffled either. In particular, there was a faint pink tinge in his cheeks. His voice, however, was completely normal when he answered her. "You stopped in the middle again. Idiot."

She paused, then looked down at her mismatched feet. Her left foot was still bare and the toes curled with cold.

"Oh." It was her turn to blush with embarrassment, but she gathered her wits. "You could have just told me."

"Well, you looked busy trying to get your brain to work."

"At least I _have_ a brain."

"Just so you know, it doesn't count when it doesn't work."

"It doesn't count when you refuse to use it either!"

"And when did I refuse to think?"

"Just now!"

"Oh, really? Who was the one that fell on me?"

"Why did you grab my foot?!"

"I already explained that!"

"You could have just told me!"

"Oh, right, because you're so good at listening!"

"You didn't even try!"

"What the hell?" Suddenly his voice became dangerous, soft, and quiet. Darkness abruptly fell over his face and he stared at her with something like understanding.

"I'm the one who should be saying that!"

"Do you even know who you're talking to?!"

"Like I care! Like _you_ care!"

"_For god's sake, just shut up!_"

Izumi had a sinking, nauseous feeling in her stomach that just got worse the longer the yelling match went on. Kouji's eyes were dark, darker than she had ever seen them, and the normal icy restraint fell away like dust. Instead, there was raw fury and adrenaline.

But she was just as furious as he was, and a heady sensation in her head blurred her thoughts and made her reckless.

She made the first move, a fast punch that went wide of Kouji's head when he dropped down low and swung his leg under her. Her body seemed to move of its own volition, easily flipping over the limb and, with one hand splayed on the ground, using the generated momentum to spin her entire body over the fulcrum, easily out of reach.

The intricate twist of his muscles tossed his other leg higher when he whipped around, headed straight for her stomach. Heart drumming under her ribcage, she whirled around to see the reach of his kick and leapt just barely out of range, skirting up the inclining wall to her right and slamming her entire body into his. Hissing he made to grab her and offset the momentum by turning, but she used her upper body to brace herself against his chest and she broke the hold by swinging her lower body up. The displacement of her weight now to his front, his grip loosened and he reacted first to regain his balance.

Izumi heard him curse again, under his breath, and his eyes had gone from hot fury to cold dispassion. The merciless curl of his lips made his face wraith-like. For some reason, she couldn't feel the intensity of his gaze at all. It was almost like a dream. What was she doing?

Freed, she landed on her feet, only to come face-to-face with Kouji. The air was still.

What were they doing? Izumi fought the fogginess that suddenly clouded and filled her insides like a terrible storm. Kouji was tense in front of her, eyes completely trained on hers.

Then strange things happened to her vision, and the world went lopsided for a moment. There was a lot of noise. Kouji's face reappeared, probably only a few inches from her. She wondered if it was her imagination that his eyes were wider than normal. He was saying something, and she tried to read his lips because it was too loud to hear him clearly.

She was trying to tell him to speak louder, louder. Strange, the urge to hit him had disappeared. Then the dark blue eyes closed suddenly and went far away. For some reason, she wanted to cry.

Izumi squinted at the sky. The sun must have set, because it was getting dark.

* * *

For a long time, all she saw was an inky stillness that burned more brightly than the sun.

It was fairly pleasant, actually. The darkness made for a better rest than she had gotten in days.

Now, why was that? Sleeping wasn't exactly a hard thing to do. And Izumi had never had a problem with sleeping when there was time for that luxury. Understanding the hazy half-formed thoughts in her head was difficult. They floated just above her in translucent rings of dust, but the minute her hands reached up to touch them, they dissolved into the black background.

After the first time they vanished, she lay there and waited for the delicate little circles to come back, because other than her own body, she couldn't see anything else. But she didn't feel bored. Actually, the sense of boredom was beyond her.

She didn't know what to do, because it felt like so many little connections that should be there simply weren't there.

What happened?

Izumi struggled to conjure up a coherent answer, but the feeling of distance reasserted itself and she was lost.

A sense of cold, something that burned but not like fire, and – pain.

She gasped for breath when the sharp tingles returned to her. Jabbing sharpness went down her spine, and she was vaguely reminded of something, something…what was it?

The sensation faded and again she wondered, bewildered, what had happened.

The strange little dusty creations were in front of her again, and she muttered a faint protest. She couldn't understand what they were supposed to represent, or what they were supposed to mean. It was strange being in a world like this when she was convinced that she was either dreaming or somehow stuck in her own mind. The familiar lethargy that always accompanied her when she went to sleep was there, after all.

But she never had dreams like this.

Tired, she sank back into the darkness and willed the strange things to go away.

They did.

Somewhere, she started to hear a faint humming sound. It was low and gentle, vibrating along her skin and making the sleepy place much more pleasant to stay in. It wasn't a song that she recognized, so she tried to listen for the words. After the music became a little bit louder, she realized that she couldn't hear any because there weren't any to hear: it sounded more like a songbird than a human voice.

Her awareness was coming back to her in patches, and she slowly realized that the sound was too smooth and level for a bird. An instrument, perhaps…she mused slowly on the possible sources of the music and felt the music become clearer and clearer. At the same time, soft little traces of the dusty rings had reappeared, into other shapes and colors and sizes. For the time being, it meant nothing to her, but the longer she stared into it, the more she felt like she _knew_ what it was. She still couldn't name the subject, but it was clear enough.

Only a little while later, she realized that the vibrations on her skin were perfectly in tune with the music. It wasn't simply an imaginary notion; whatever was making the delicate notes hang in the air was definitely making her real body tremble along with it.

Touch and hearing were returning to her. Now, she felt the darkness slowly wash away into something that was oddly colorless but neither black nor white. It was a peculiar nothingness, but the sounds were becoming louder and louder, and she could feel something blowing gently against her neck. Warm.

The scent of pine and leather returned to Izumi suddenly, along with her consciousness. It was tempting to keep still and simply feel the world around her, but renewed awareness of her situation persuaded her to do more.

So she tried a name.

"Kouji," she murmured.

Instantly the faint melody stopped halfway into the chorus, and she felt warm, long limbs turning her around. Her eyes opened just a little, then immediately shut again. The brightness of the world was overwhelming. She heard someone say, "Hey."

She was leaning against a solid, secure presence. The gentle rise and fall against her left cheek was comforting, and so was the voice that filtered into her ears.

And something else struck her. It wasn't cold.

It was actually warm. Very much so. But somehow, it didn't feel like the warmth of the sun, or of a fire. The source was all around her, like thousands of little candles that were pressed right to her skin.

It was very nice. She didn't want to move at all. But Kouji – that was his name, she remembered now – was nudging her gently on her left side.

"How do you feel?"

She blinked slowly, feeling more relaxed and comfortable than she had in quite some time. The light didn't hurt so much now. "Mmm," she mumbled.

The soft breath on her neck stopped for a moment, then sighed. "Tired?"

"Yeah," Izumi managed with a yawn, because she was being rocked gently and felt sleepy again. Suddenly something else was obtrusively pushed against her lips, and she whined faintly. It wasn't a comfortable feeling.

Something rumbled under her. It sounded almost like laughter, and she opened one eye blearily to look around. The first thing she saw was a very familiar looking earthenware mug. Recognition happened by degrees, especially after she opened her mouth and the mug tipped over to drop warm liquid inside.

It was somewhat bitter, and she wrinkled her nose. She heard Kouji choke down another laugh, and she glared up at him. Instantly, the sun behind his head flashed into her eyes, and she ducked back down.

"Drink," he said finally, sounding almost amused. "It'll get you awake."

"I _am_ awake," she protested softly, burying her head deeper into the warmth and away from the evil sun.

"Then get up." A challenge? No matter. She was perfectly happy to stay there, thank you very much. There was a pause, and she hoped that the young man was going to let her be.

Then she yelped when Kouji pulled her knees up close to her chest and suddenly carried her up. "Kouji…"

"Here." Something wrapped around her eyes suddenly, and her fingers instantly went to touch the new object. It was soft, and reminded her of the shirt that Kouji had cut up quite some time ago. Vaguely she remembered that she had taken a strip off of it to tie up her cloak. Her left hand joined the right in feeling the back of her head for the ends of the fabric. When she found them, she ran over both sides and felt a familiar frilly button on one. Her suspicions confirmed, she turned her attention back to the person holding her securely against him.

"Why'd you keep it?" A confused silence followed, so she elaborated. "The shirt-belt, I mean."

"Ah." He was letting go of her knees, but she tugged him closer with a little pout. It was much warmer being right next to him like this. The outside chill brushed her ruthlessly when he pulled back anyway. She only realized that he hadn't answered her question a few minutes later.

"So?"

"So what?"

"Why'd you keep it?"

She could practically see him shrugging in the pause that followed. But then, he realized that she was blindfolded and gave her a proper answer. "It's bad to just throw things away."

"Okay," she murmured, only partially satisfied but sensing that he wasn't going to tell her more.

At any point, Kouji was quite ready to ask a few questions of his own. "What's the last thing that you remember?"

Now that she thought about it, it wasn't an unreasonable thing to ask. But the truth was, she really didn't know the answer. It felt like her entire memory bank had been scrubbed clean and then dumped all over the floor. "I don't know," she admitted finally, feeling more than a little unsettled by the situation.

A hand settled over her forehead. "We were fighting," he prompted. His voice was almost gentle, though it retained some of his usual composure.

"Fighting," she repeated. "Just arguing or really fighting?" She tried to think of any recent arguments or fights that they might have had, but drew a complete blank.

"You punched me," he replied dryly. Paused. "Well, tried to."

Oh. _Oh_. Suddenly she felt as though she knew exactly what he was talking about, even though the actual event still evaded her. "And after that?"

"We kicked each other around," he pulled her up next to him so that they were both leaning against the rock wall. "And then you dropped. You don't remember?"

Izumi winced at the feeling of cold stone at her back. After spending some time feeling quite warm, the chill was unexpected and unpleasant. She forced herself to think about what Kouji had told her, but there was still that sense of vacancy. "No, I don't."

He sighed. "Well, it couldn't be helped."

She hesitantly asked, "Kouji, do you know why?"

"I think I do." He didn't sound particularly happy about it. There was a note of displeasure in the words. "How much magic have you been using?"

She started to reply, but faltered. "I – don't know."

Kouji practically radiated anger now, although it was tightly controlled. Unfortunately, the harshness still filtered into his voice. He scrambled around for something. "Then tell me, can you blow this out of my hand?"

Izumi was almost glad that she couldn't see him, even though she didn't really know why. "I can't see what you're holding up."

"You don't need to know. Try."

Izumi bit her lip. Summoning her wind was always a strange experience, like she was blowing without lungs. She tried to gather up the air around her, but it slipped through. Again, she held out for the raw gust to gather in her hands, but nothing came. She nearly panicked, but then realized that Kouji probably already knew what had gone wrong. "I can't."

"You can't," Kouji was nearly whispering, "because you completely exhausted yourself using it this past week. You've been pushing your ability harder than it can go, and now," she felt him make some kind of sweeping gesture, "now you can't even do anything with it! You can't even feel it there, can you? It's not just some tool that you can use whenever you like! If you don't know how to use it properly, then you could kill yourself trying! How many times did I warn you about this? How many, Izumi?"

She felt the full force of his fury all at once, and began to chew her lower lip. Her emotions were in a violent war between indignant anger and thorough humiliation. Part of her was irrationally angry with him for being so angry with _her_. He really didn't have any right to yell at her for overreaching herself when she had done almost nothing compared to him. The other side of her, which respected the Northerner, protested that she should have listened to his greater experience. She had asked him to teach her, and he had done the best he could with the time they had. Time, time. That was the only problem. There was never enough of it.

He muttered something angrily to himself but seemed more relieved than furious at the moment. "You were lucky. You're still alive, and you still have your ability."

Startled, Izumi looked up in the direction of his voice, even though she couldn't see him. "How can you tell?"

He flicked her on the forehead. "You wouldn't have woken up so soon if you didn't have it anymore."

She almost laughed, but the grimness in his voice surprised her. New waves of emotion fought the others for dominance, this time of guilt. She opened her mouth to apologize, but it got stopped in her throat and she couldn't get the words out.

The silence that followed wasn't unexpected, but somehow it felt different. Maybe being blindfolded had something to do with it, because she felt so much more aware of her companion. Much more than she was used to. There was a sense of heaviness in his slow breaths, and she didn't like it. He was sinking into one of those strange moods when he stopped behaving normally and often ceased talking altogether. It had taken the better part of two days for him to shake it off the only other time she had seen him like this, beginning at the first sign of frost and only ending well into snow country. That was nearly a week ago.

It wasn't exactly a gloomy mood. True, there were a lot of things that could be gloomy about it, like the silence, or the wariness, or even the way he avoided human contact. But overall, he never acted particularly sullen or dismal. Just thoughtful. On the other hand, just because he wasn't completely depressed didn't mean that the period of silence was good for him.

When Kouji stopped talking, he retreated. His body went on automatic, unaware of the outside world. But eternally ignoring reality wouldn't help anyone. Izumi knew that. Normally, Kouji did too.

The only problem was that there was no real way to force him out of his silence. She wasn't even sure that interfering was a good thing to do, especially if he was upset with her.

It was probably better to wait it out, just like last time.

Her fingers ran down from his shoulder to his elbow. When she got to the forearm, she gently pulled it out and stroked a path up to his hand. She pulled the palm close to her, resting it on her knees and spreading his fingers out. They twitched slightly when she rubbed the skin from the palm out in a kind of sunburst.

The world seemed much more alive without her sight. It was impossible to be objective about things when you could feel them, hear them, smell them. The feeling was so natural that she actually thought about keeping the blindfold on even after she didn't need it anymore. Maybe it was another extension of her magic. She liked it.

Izumi was so absorbed in exploring the planes of his hand that she stopped concentrating on Kouji's breathing. It had quickened slightly, hitching whenever she hit a particularly sensitive spot. At some point it became quite shallow and forced. The relaxed curl of his hand belied the tenseness across the rest of his body. He let her continue for a little while longer, and then he moved.

She gave a cry of surprise when she found herself suddenly sprawled on the floor. A heavy, breathing weight settled on top of her, and she bit her lip. Apparently Kouji hadn't lost his ability to surprise her. Her hands instantly darted to the blindfold, trying to pull it off. At the very least, if he was going to be as unpredictable as this, she wanted to be aware of what he was doing. His hands dropped on top of hers and firmly pulled them away.

Izumi heard him breathing. Her entire body was shivering even though she didn't really feel cold, and she felt a shaky sigh rush past her throat. Something warm blew onto her lips, and she flushed. Her fingers scrambled to feel for him, but his hands caught them and pulled. The move also lifted Izumi off of the floor, and she curled around him with a few faint, confused whispers. "Kouji? What are you doing?"

He was heavy and solid under her, but didn't answer.

She felt his fingers run down her cheek gently. "Sleep," he murmured.

"Are you still angry?"

He scoffed. "Idiot." His arms looped around her waist and pulled her close. "Idiot."

* * *

And that's all! We'll see these two again when the next installment comes out, but they won't be the main characters anymore. By then, a lot of things will change - including their relationship.

See you later!


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